A great amount of mechanical stress is placed on jet engines and their associated components during initial take-off. Some jet engine components and processes are now controlled through the well known engine air flow FADEC control system, which may include the sensing and control of core compartment bleeding, sump pressurization, sump venting, active clearance control, draining, and low pressure and high pressure recoup. In other jet engine designs, other engine sensors sense various associated components.
During initial take-off, the pilot observes many cockpit meters and observes engine performance. Based upon his analysis of the observed meters and his overall experience, the pilot may make an emergency landing or continue his flight to the destination even if he believes minor engine problems are occurring during initial take-off or in flight. If this engine data, such as that type of data contained through the engineer flow FADEC control and other sensors could be initialized initially during take-off, both onboard and on-ground, such as by a ground crew or automatic server located on the ground, better control over the engine could be exerted. Additionally, such information obtained during initial take-off could be used to determine maintenance schedules. Any immediate maintenance could be scheduled when the aircraft landed at its destination.
In copending patent application Ser. No. 08/557,269, filed Nov. 14, 1995, and entitled, "WIRELESS, FREQUENCY-AGILE SPREAD SPECTRUM GROUND LINK-BASED AIRCRAFT DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," the disclosure which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, a ground data link system provides a wireless mechanism for transferring data files to and from aircraft while the aircraft is on the ground at ground data link equipped airports. Flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance is obtained during flight of the aircraft and stored in a data store. After the aircraft lands at the airport, the data is downloaded to an airport based spread spectrum receiver that could be part of an airport based server. Although the flight performance data is collected during flight, the spread spectrum transceiver could be used for downloading data initially at take-off.